His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa transmits teachings and an empowerment in Karma Migyur Ling

On July 30 His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa arrived in Karma Migyur Ling for a six-day programme of teaching, continuing his commentary of the Bodhicarya-Avatara.

He taught two sessions per day, with the mornings devoted to the teaching proper, both in English and in Tibetan, while afternoon sessions were reserved for questions and answers.

In his introductory teaching on the morning of the first day His Holiness explained that “going through this teaching helps us realise how precious our life is, by developing the bodhisattva’s attitude. With a bit of practice it becomes natural for us, and Shantideva describes this in a simple method. Even though he taught it a long time ago, in his day and age, it is still very relevant in our own time.”

Gyalwa Karmapa finished the first chapter on the benefits of bodhicitta and started the second chapter, which deals with the purification of non-virtuous actions. The first part of this chapter talks about offerings, describing the most lavish offerings in exceedingly poetic and inspiring ways, and His Holiness gave profound and detailed instructions on how to view and approach this practice of offering.

On the evening of August 2 His Holiness gave a public lecture on the topic of “How to Live a Meaningful Life”. The venue was the Hilton Hotel in Lyon, and once again, the interest in his teaching was so great that the hall that had been booked for the event proved too small to hold all the would-be participants, and a number of people had to remain outside. The sweltering heat did nothing to diminish the interest and enthusiasm of the audience, and the question-and-answer session which followed the lecture itself went on until almost midnight.

On August 4 His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa transmitted the combined empowerment of the three aspects Vajrapani-Hayagriva-Garuda to a large gathering of devotees. Once again, he took plenty of time to explain the meaning of the various stages of the empowerment to his students.

In his introductory teaching he talked about the importance of cultivating the right motivation and the proper understanding of it: “Our intention is very important – the intention to truly want to benefit others. It’s not about how many beings you can benefit – it’s simply the idea that you want to benefit others. It’s also not exactly about whether we can actually help or not – we don’t have to burden ourselves with this. As long as we have the motivation, that’s everything. If we fixate and say, “I want to help, I need to help,” then if we cannot help we will feel agitated and frustrated. That’s why we simply generate this precious mind; this attitude that we are ready at all times to help. With this attitude we are at peace.”